


The Conductor

by eriah211



Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Spooky, Team, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 08:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17158550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eriah211/pseuds/eriah211
Summary: It was a simple, easy mission, but even in those you can be surprised.





	The Conductor

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by the wonderful fredbassett, who also suggested the title, and it was also actually written because of her.  
> Written mostly on Halloween night 2018, but posted later (previously on livejournal).

 

At first, Jenny’s hard work had been essential to get the reluctant local police forces to play along with the anomaly team and the mayhem that usually followed them. Ryan knew they hadn’t been very happy about all the secrecy, of course, but even when Jenny’s charm failed, her threats would still work magic.  
  
It had got easier after a while, though, once the police had realised things got solved faster when the SF boys and the geeks with the strange machines came to help them, but lately the police were getting a bit too comfortable with the ARC team being around, as far as Ryan was concerned.  
  
Not so long ago, the police used to ignore the fact that they even existed until something weird, usually with big teeth and bad attitude, caused havoc in their area and the ARC vehicles appeared on the site. Now, though, the ARC kept receiving requests for help on a lot of different issues that ended up having nothing to do with the anomalies.  
  
Ryan had started to suspect that every time a witness would use the words ‘weird’ and ‘lights’ in a statement, the police had decided they should dump the problem on them. Considering how things worked, they probably had an official form for it already, Ryan mused bitterly.  
  
One of those vague reports was the reason why he was spending that cold October night at the abandoned Highgate Station alongside Connor and Cutter. All the information they had to work with was a complaint about ‘weird noises’ and ‘some lights’ at night, but since there hadn’t been any strange creature sightings, the ARC had just sent a small discreet team, with no men in uniform, to make sure it really wasn’t an anomaly-related incident.  
  
They got there in the evening. The sun had already set a long time ago and it was now quite cold. Ryan felt thankful he was wearing a thick coat that would keep him warm, while also very effectively hiding the gun holster he was carrying underneath.  
  
They talked to some neighbours about any recent incidents they could remember, but they didn’t get anything from them, except an offer of a cup of tea from the lady who lived in one of the old station buildings near the platform, now a private residence.  
  
“No, sorry, I haven’t seen or heard anything out of the ordinary these last few nights,” the old lady told them. “Are you sure you don’t want a cup of tea before you leave?”  
  
“No, we really have to go, but thank you for your kind offer, Mrs Crawford,” Cutter refused politely. “We’ll simply take a look around, just to make sure everything’s fine.”  
  
“Oh, I hope it won’t take you too long, it’s really cold outside at night these days,” she told them as she walked them to the door.  “They’ve said in the news that it’s the coldest October in fifty years and it might be true, but I recall when I was a little girl nights in autumn used to be mu-“  
  
“Thank you, again, Mrs Crawford, I’m sure it won’t take us too long,” Cutter interrupted, obviously dreading a long trip down memory lane from the old lady.  
  
“Oh, good, good,” she said with a warm smile as they walked away. “Have a good night, then.”  
  
Once Mrs Crawford was back inside her home, they headed towards the old platform, where they could look at what was left of the station. Connor got the anomaly detector out of his bag and took some readings, but there was no sign of any anomaly in the vicinity.  
  
They inspected the abandoned station under the faint glow of the few streetlights that were still working in the surrounding area and the brighter light of the more useful torches they had brought with them, but there wasn’t much to see on the platform aside from the concrete ground, a vandalized, empty office and a roof in a surprisingly good condition.  
  
They went down the platform and walked around the place, but even after a thorough check, they found nothing of interest. There were no animal tracks on the wild vegetation covering the old railroad that led into the tunnels, no signs of recent bonfires that could explain the lights.  
  
The mouth of the tunnels was blocked by low brick walls with a rusty fence on the top and a quick close look at them was enough to confirm two things, first that they weren’t very sturdy and second, that nobody had bothered to try to break in.  
  
They went back to the platform and Connor took more readings with the ADD, but still the results were the same as before. Nothing seemed to even hint at an anomaly-related incursion in that place and Ryan was more than ready to call it a day and officially label the whole thing as a big waste of their time.  
  
“Are we done here?” Ryan asked Cutter, after a few minutes of staring at the blocked tunnels in the half-light.  
  
“The report the police sent us said that the ‘incident’ happened around midnight,” Cutter said, thoughtfully. “I think we can give it at least until then. Just to be sure.”  
  
“What makes you think there’s something going on here?” Ryan asked, suspiciously.  
  
Cutter was not a man that would waste a minute if he thought there was nothing worthy of his time there to see. And he knew it because Cutter, with his usual lack of manners, had said so to his face more than once before.  
  
“The man who made the complaint mentioned he heard some loud noises and when he looked out through the window he saw a strange light and something ‘impossible’, which he refused to describe,” Cutter replied. “I think that ‘impossible’ is our cue, captain, don’t you think?”  
  
“That’s all?”  
  
“Call it a hunch, then,” Cutter said with a smirk.  
  
Ryan decided not to argue with Cutter and just shrugged. There was about an hour to midnight and even if the night was cold, he would rather wait outdoors for a little longer than start an argument with the stubborn professor that could take forever.  
  
Ryan zipped his warm coat up completely, getting comfortable for the wait. Connor’s thin jacket, Ryan noted, wasn’t such a good choice of clothing for the occasion and the young man was sitting on the platform floor, looking at his laptop with his arms tightly wrapped around himself to keep him warm. On the bright side, the scarf and gloves he usually wore everywhere were being actually useful for once, Ryan thought.  
  
Connor wasn’t his usual bubbly self and was keeping mostly quiet, but Ryan had the feeling it had little to do with the cold and more with the fact that Abby hadn’t come with them because she had gone away on holiday with some friends. Instead of babbling continuously about one fact or another, Connor was reading something on his computer in silence while he glanced occasionally to the ADD to see if there was any change on the readings. Ryan wasn’t going to complain, though, he enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet in the field for a change.  
  
The waiting was as boring as expected, with nothing to do and nothing to see in the dim light. The station was located on a quiet place, with a small road on one side and a forest bordering the other.  Aside from Mrs Crawford’s home, there weren’t many houses nearby and even those had turned off all their lights some time ago, turning them into simple grey silhouettes against the dark sky.  
  
When it reached a few minutes past midnight, Ryan was about to call it a day, then they heard a noise. Something was moving through the bushes on the old railway tracks and it was getting closer. Cutter shone his torch in the direction of the sound and it immediately stopped, but the unmistakable sound of an animal growling replaced it.  
  
Ryan was reminded then that sometimes the most supposedly stupid missions could be the most dangerous if you were careless. He took out his gun, aiming in the direction of the growling as he walked forward to stand between the threat and the others, but Cutter gestured at him to wait.  
  
The sound got closer, but Cutter simply whistled lightly, smiling. A few seconds later a black Schnauzer appeared through the bushes and growled at them defiantly from below the platform stairs.  
  
“That’s a big attitude for such a small dog,” Cutter said, amused.  
  
“A stray dog? Mystery solved then, we can go now,” Ryan replied, relieved it was finally over.  
  
“I don’t think it’s a stray, he looks quite well fed and clean,” Cutter replied. “He probably just likes to go out at night to hunt rats around the neighborhood.”  
  
“It could be the cause of the noises…”  
  
“But it wouldn’t explain the lights.”  
  
Ryan glared at Cutter and for once the man seemed to take the hint and give up.  
  
“I guess we’ve already made a thorough check here,” Cutter admitted, shrugging. “We should probably go.”  
  
“Erm, guys….” Connor interrupted behind them.  
  
They turned to see that the young man was checking the ADD with a puzzled expression on his face.  
  
“Is it an anomaly?” Cutter asked, sounding hopeful.  
  
“It’s not really the same signal, but the ADD is getting something faint.”  
  
“A local radio station?” Ryan suggested.  
  
“I don’t think so…”  
  
The sudden barks of the Schnauzer at their back made the three of them jump lightly. The dog was looking at the opposite direction, ignoring them completely, and kept barking loudly although they tried to get his attention to make him stop.  
  
If there was something else out there, Ryan thought in annoyance, the noisy dog would attract it and make it almost impossible for them to hear anything until it was too close.  
  
Then a metal screeching sound coming from inside the tunnels proved Ryan wrong.  
  
The dog whimpered and ran away immediately and they stared in disbelief as they saw signs of a dim light moving inside the tunnel on the right side of the tracks.  
  
“We have to get the locking mechanism from the car,” Cutter said without taking his eyes from the tunnel.  
  
Ryan threw the car keys to Connor, who was kneeling, trying to pick up his bag and laptop from the floor, but before he could even stand up, they heard something they recognized immediately. The clatter of a train was a very distinct sound, but it couldn’t be, Ryan thought with dismay, it was impossible.  
  
The light inside the tunnel was getting brighter and the clattering was getting louder. Had a train from the past come through an anomaly inside the tunnel? Ryan wondered. A tunnel that was blocked by a wall nowadays. No matter how week the wall was, it could still be a disaster.  
  
There was no way to clear the opening of the tunnel in time and all Ryan could do was to look in horror as the light got closer to it.  
  
He heard the train whistle blow and then, without a single brick of the wall moving, the translucent form of an old steam train went through the wall and kept going until it came slowly to a stop by the platform, where Ryan, Connor and Cutter were standing, frozen in shock.  
  
As it stopped completely, the apparition lost its translucent quality and looked as solid as the platform itself. Ryan stared wide-eyed at it, not completely believing his own eyes. But it was, for sure, an old steam locomotive, towing three old-fashioned carriages. And they weren’t empty.  
  
In each carriage, figures of men and women could be seen through the windows, but they were all sitting or standing with their backs to the platform, facing away from the windows and some primal instinct told Ryan that it was better that way, that if the passengers turned around to look outside, bad things could happen.  
  
Ryan heard a whimper by his side and realised that Connor was still kneeling on the floor, holding his bag to his chest, and looked as if he was about to faint. A quick glance at his back let Ryan know that Cutter would be more useful if things turned ugly, but the professor also looked completely astonished.  
  
Ryan felt way out of his depth, but he was hesitantly pointing his gun at the ghostly train just in case, more out of force of habit than anything else. He had seen many things in his time working in the ARC, but he had never expected anything like this. The gun in his hand felt useless, but somehow he couldn’t get himself to lower it. Bullets might not be very effective in that situation, but it felt better than just shutting his eyes tightly closed and wishing it all away.  
  
A slightly desperate voice in Ryan’s head had started to tell him everything had to be just a dream when the door of the carriage that had stopped right in front of them opened, creaking, and that alone was enough to kick the voice away and get him fully alert.  
  
A man was standing on the other side of the open door with his back turned to them. Ryan couldn’t see him clearly, but the old-fashioned uniform and the cap the man was wearing made it easy to assume that it was a ticket collector.  
  
Ryan hold his breath and tensed, but nobody else appeared by the door. Then the ticket collector started turning around slowly.  
  
Connor whimpered again, but Ryan kept his eyes on the man on the train. Behind him, he heard Cutter gasp.  
  
The figure turned around completely and stood there, apparently looking straight at them, but it was hard to tell. The man, who wore an immaculate buttoned up uniform, had white hair and a short beard, but his eyes were missing. Where the man’s eyes should have been there was just emptiness, two holes so black and deep that Ryan couldn’t have looked away even if he had wanted to.  
  
The man didn’t move any further, didn’t speak, and Ryan stood there, holding his breath for what felt like forever. Then the whistle blew again and the door of the carriage closed. Through the window in the door Ryan saw the collector turning around again as the train started moving away.  
  
As it was leaving the station, Ryan noticed the train was losing his solid appearance, turning more and more translucent as it went away, until it simply turned into a light mist that floated towards the trees at the edge of the forest and then disappeared completely.  
  
After a moment of silence, Ryan heard Cutter curse out loud and Connor gasp for breath and then he finally put away the gun he was still holding.  
Connor was sitting on the floor, holding onto his bag as if it was a lifeline, and Ryan turned to put a reassuring hand on the young geek’s shoulder when the barking started again. When Ryan looked around to locate the dog, he noticed there was a light in Mrs Crawford’s porch and there, wrapped up in a thick coat, was Mrs Crawford herself.  
  
“Come on, Angus, time to come home!” Ryan heard her calling out.  
  
The Schnauzer was barking happily by her side in a moment and went inside the house without much complain after some petting from its owner.  
Then Mrs Crawford turned to the platform and looked straight at them. The old woman didn’t look scared, Ryan noticed, and she simply smiled at them and gestured to them to get closer, so that’s what they did.  
  
“How long have you been out here, Mrs Crawford?” Cutter asked when they reached the house.  
  
“Oh, probably too long, dear, it’s so cold!” Mrs Crawford said. “Come inside, it certainly looks like you need a hot cup of tea now.”  
  
  
***  
  
A few minutes later, they were in the warm sitting room of Mrs Crawford’s house with a hot cup of tea in their hands.  
  
The silence stretched uncomfortably as they slowly sipped the tea, probably not knowing, any of them, how to bring up what they had just seen.  
  
“I guess it’s safe to say that you’ve seen what has just happened at the station, right, Mrs Crawford?” Cutter finally started.  
  
“That’s correct,” Mrs Crawford admitted, smiling politely.  
  
“When we asked you before, you said you hadn’t seen anything, Mrs Crawford,” Cutter said, in a slightly accusing tone. “But you don’t exactly look surprised by what you’ve seen tonight.”  
  
“I said I hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary, dear,” Mrs Crawford replied with a glint of mischief in her eyes. “And what you have just seen, believe it or not, has been happening in this town for many years. We just don’t like to talk about it to strangers,” she added, shrugging lightly.  
  
“So the whole town knows?” Connor asked in disbelief.  
  
“Well, most of the neighbours know. Definitely the ones living closer to the station know about it,” she explained calmly. “But we know better than to be bothering the police with a matter like this. What could they do anyway? If there was anything to be done at all.”  
  
“And the call to the police?” Ryan asked.  
  
“That was probably Mr Bradford’s cousin,” Mrs Crawford said, sighing. “He was visiting him recently and since Mr Bradford’s house is quite close to the station he was probably woken up by the noise, unfortunately. I don’t know why that silly man thought that he needed to tell the police about it, but to be completely honest, I’ve heard he isn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the kitchen drawer, as they usually say.”  
  
“You are OK with… all this happening?” Connor asked, confused. “Right next to your house?”  
  
“It’s not such a nuisance, really,” the old lady explained. “A bit of noise some nights, but it’s not really a big disturbance. It does appear more often this time of the year, that’s true, but it just stops there briefly and then disappears. No harm done.”  
  
She stopped to take a sip of her tea, apparently unflappable, but Ryan could see there was sadness in her eyes.  
  
“A few times I’ve seen somebody waiting on the platform when the train appears,” Mrs Crawford continued, her smile faltering slightly. “I’m not sure where they come from, but they get in and they disappear with the train. I have never seen anybody getting off, though. Never.”  
  
Ryan remembered the open door of the carriage and felt a shiver run down his spine. Had it been an invitation? And to go where exactly? Ryan wasn’t sure he wanted to know.  
  
“For a long time after my husband died, I used to get up and go out to the porch every time I heard the train coming. I tried to take a look at the passengers, but they never turned around.” She added, smiling sadly. “I tried to see if my George was among them, you know? But I never saw anybody resembling him inside or getting in that train. Eventually, I realised that it was probably a good thing.”  
  
“I’m sure it was, Mrs Crawford,” Cutter said, sympathetically.  
  
There were tears glistening in her eyes when Mrs Crawford stopped again to sip at her tea, Ryan noticed. And maybe in the professor’s eyes too.  
  
They finished their cups of tea shortly after and left Mrs Crawford’s house after reassuring her they would keep the town’s secret so they wouldn’t need to worry about tourists and amateur ghost-busters.  
  
As they walked towards the car, they took a last look at the station, but they saw nothing unusual that could even hint at the incredible event they had witnessed not too long ago.  
  
He had seen so many wonders already, Ryan thought, but it looked like there were still many others out there to be discovered. And he hoped to see at least a few more of them.  
  
  
END


End file.
